Death in the Arizona desert

May 30, 2001

Fourteen illegal migrants from Mexico died last week in the broiling Arizona desert, some so dehydrated they looked mummified. Awful? Yes. Startling? Hardly. About 400 illegal immigrants died last year along the border while trying to enter the U.S.

Four hundred people.

Both governments blamed the latest tragedy on smugglers who apparently led the migrants into the rugged desert and abandoned them. Some pro-immigrant groups in turn blamed the U.S., arguing that stricter American patrols have forced illegals to cross through more dangerous areas--as if it were unreasonable or a violation of international law for a country to attempt to secure its own borders.

Yes, smugglers led 14 people to their deaths. But this tragedy also reveals a measure of hypocrisy on the part of Mexico and the U.S. when it comes to immigration.

President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox have launched a high-level policy review that reportedly is considering greater cooperation between the two countries on immigration. Changes could not come too soon.

For the U.S., illegal immigrants have become an integral part of the economy. You've probably met some of them--taking your order, cleaning your table, cooking your food.

Current U.S. immigration practices tacitly acknowledge that. The U.S. spends billions of dollar patrolling the border but does virtually nothing to prosecute illegal migrant workers once they're in the country. Restaurant, agricultural and other interests simply would not stand for it.

It would be far more sensible for the U.S. to develop an above-board temporary-worker program that permits the orderly entry of certain numbers of workers, depending on the requirements of the economy and the labor market.

Such normalization would protect immigrants from exploitation, and permit safe, round-trip traveling. One of the most ironic, and cruel, outcomes of the U.S. clamp-down along the border is that "circular migration" has been largely cut off. That has led to greater numbers of illegal Mexican immigrants remaining here permanently--and apart from their families--rather than risking border crossings.

No system is ever going to do away completely with illegal crossings between the two countries, but a temporary worker program would go a long way toward normalizing a migration that is now largely shadowy and chaotic.

Mexico suffers its own brand of cynical myopia. Historically it has refused to act regarding the growing mayhem along the border, citing constitutional guarantees of free travel. Truth is that with far more bodies than it can employ or feed, migration northward has served as an escape valve--and the larger the flow, the better.

But with smugglers endangering the lives of its own citizens daily, isn't it time for Mexico to take a stronger hand in this matter? Doesn't its constitution also compel the Mexican government to protect the welfare of its citizens?

Bush and Fox are on to something: More realistic and cooperative thinking on immigration is need on both sides of the border. Last week's deaths are just the latest reminder of that.